A few strokes to a portrait of Taras Shtonda, soloist with the National Opera and Bolshoi
After his graduation exam at the music college, people walking out of the audience exchanged meaningful glances. They all sensed that they had just witnessed a new phenomenon in the operatic world of Ukraine. No one said anything as though afraid to put the evil eye on the graduate. Taras’s first concert appearance was certainly unique. He would bring a suitcase packed with music (his concert repertoire was sizable even then) and whisper in the accompanist’s ear which piece would be the next during the concert. There was something Chaliapin about that. And every time he proved he had a right to such extravaganza. Even Rachmaninoff’s Spring Flood was among the romances he sang at those early concerts (the music had to be rearranged for the bass). Few other basses could have handled this airy composition meant only for a soprano voice, or so it seemed.
Taras Shtonda’s way of thinking has never been “narrowly vocal.” Once, at music college, he admitted that he was practicing Chopin’s fourth ballad on the piano. Imagine! For all one knows, he could have made a brilliant pianist.
His big-time opera debut took place in 1992. He was then a student at the conservatory, in Prof. Halyna Sukhorukova’s class. He appeared in the National Opera as Gremin in Eugene Onegin . After the curtain was rung down for the next act and the stage hands were busy with the setting, Iryna Molostova walked up and congratulated him on the debut. Today, his repertoire includes over 20 operatic parts. He has mostly sung first position parts, sometimes refusing second position ones (as was the case with the Baron in La Traviata when Taras refused point blank, even though he thus lost the opportunity to walk on stage arm-in-arm with Yevheniya Myroshnychenko).
AN UNWELCOME GUEST
As with any operatic star, there are many stories and rumors about Taras Shtonda. I will take the liberty of relating several of the more truthful sort. Once, singing in The Barber of Seville , Taras was late going on stage. Things like that happen, but the performance cannot be stopped. The conductor smartly “jumped” to the next scene, skipping the one with Don Basilio and Dr. Bartollo. Great, except that the missing scene included the famous aria about slander. That night the audience could not enjoy Shtonda’s rendition, although Don Basilio did appear as an “unwelcome guest,” holding a tuning fork, singing to himself do-mi-sol-do. In other productions this scene is often omitted, but at the National Opera it was not, so Shtonda could fill in the gap. When the cast started crowding Don Basilio off the stage (according to the libretto), it looked very funny, as the singer had finally appeared and was obviously eager to express himself. By the way, Taras has since tried to steer clear of the Barber of Seville , for reasons best known to him.
Another funny incident happened during the cemetery scene in
Don Juan. Donna Anna and Don Ottavio were approaching the Commander’s grave where they were supposed to pause and bow. Somehow the scene looked too spacious. The audience could not understand it until the Commander, clad in his stone attire, rushed out from the right wing, raced across half the stage, jumped onto the grave with a ballet dancer’s agility, and froze there statue-like. Shtonda pulled off the stunt with such confidence that the audience felt sure it was part of the plot and that it was what made the scene complete.
In Madama Butterfly , Shtonda sang as Uncle Bonza, a small part, but he worked hard on the eurhythmics, the right gestures and expressions, and without doubt became one of the best in that role. Once he was very late for a rehearsal with the orchestra. Everybody was on stage, waiting for Bonza. When he finally appeared among the soloists, he rushed over to Lidiya Zabilyasta, threw himself on his knees before her and exclaimed, “Lidiya Leonidivna, please forgive me for making you wait!” Needless to say, this won him immediate pardon.
Taras has never adhered to a strict regimen, but in some cases he follows his own rules to a T. Once he refused to attend a rehearsal because the weather was too cold. V.N. Bahatska, manager of the troupe, called him and he told her, “Please take a look through the window. Who would go to a rehearsal in such a weather?”
Too bad, Verdi’s Don Carlos is no longer on the repertory, for Shtonda’s King Philippe left the audience breathless with admiration. Everyone could feel goose bumps as he proclaimed how unhappy he was as king, etc. No one knew how he did it, but he did.
“OUR MAN” AT THE BOLSHOI
He will sing as Zachary in Nabucco in Kyiv, February 26, and then in Riga, exactly a month later. For him, February is under the sign of War and Peace . He turned out prepared for the Kutuzov part better than anyone else. Previously, singing the Kutuzov aria in the Glinka contest’s concerts in Russia, he made even the “iron lady” Irina Arkhipova exclaim, “That’s the music they should sing!”
Among his undeniable creative attainments are Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony and The Execution of Stepan Razin . Here he makes splendid use of melodious recitative, expressive articulation, and a purely operatic emotionality. His Pimen, Prince Volodymyr of Halych, Docipheus, and other vocal parts would honor every bass’s repertoire. Regrettably, Mussorgsky’s Khova nshchina is no longer on the Kyiv repertory, but Shtonda’s Docipheus has survived and is thriving at the Bolshoi in Moscow and when on tour in Poland last December. Moscow’s newspaper Novoye Vremia wrote, “Docipheus impersonated by Taras Shtonda (a guest star from the National Opera of Ukraine, a marvelous bass the Bolshoi audience has not heard for a long time) is a remarkable combination of a kind-hearted shepherd and a cynical smart politician.”
Volodymyr of Halych in Prince Igor is one of Shtonda’s favorite operatic parts. There is a special affinity between the historical figure and the singer. In real life, beautiful girls always surround Taras.
One of his recent works is the magician Chely in Prokofiev’s Love of Three Oranges . The good wizard selflessly combats evil and helps his friends; there is something in him addressing the singer’s life credo. Every 20th century composition requires special auditory coordination and musical talent. Here one cannot go by ear and no estimation is allowed; every intonation must be in the right place. In this sense, Taras is an ideal performer. Also, his dramatic identification is superb. The altruistic spirit is so pronounced that the singer has to do little by way of dramatization, for he is an inherently friendly and kind-hearted individual.
His voice has special acoustic qualities. It is “flying,” combining sonorous strength and soft melodiousness. A very rare combination in a bass, allowing the singer to display his full captivating range, even at the National Opera where the acoustic characteristics are worse after the major repair. He is clearly heard from the remotest place in the audience.
WITHOUT “WAR AND PEACE”
Among the composers, he pr efers Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Sviridov for concert renditions. At the same time, he tries to avoid loading his programs with somber and mournful pieces. He sang Sviridov’s FiancОe to Blok’s lyrics only once and has since left it out of his repertoire. For the same reason he discarded the romance “In a Ditch Unmowed by the Mound,” which would have mesmerized the audience, given his voice and dramatic talent.
The Russian embassy invited Taras Shtonda as Ukraine’s top bass to take part in the 130th Chaliapin jubilee festivities. He is also the top leader by the number of international contests won. In fact, the geographic spread of his performances is another major accomplishment: Auditorio Nacional (Madrid), the Great Hall of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Koncertgebau in Amsterdam, Fillips Hall in the Hague, the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, the operas of Rio de Janeiro, San Paulu, and Barcelona. He sang in a concert version of Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila in Moscow recently and made a successful debut in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at the State Maryinsky Theater of St. Petersburg. He says that what they staged in Kyiv is an abridged version. For one thing, Raymond’s part is shorter by half. At the Maryinsky, they have it unabridged. Shtonda’s hero never left the stage. It was a very interesting production, conducted by Georgiyev’s right hand Mikhail Senkevich. Judging by the press following, the Ukrainian bass was noticed by St. Petersburg’s music lovers. Further cooperation is being negotiated. What about back home? The tight schedule of concert tours did not allow Taras to rehearse Kutuzov in Prokofiev’s War and Peace , the National Opera’s latest premiere. He says, however, “I’m happy to sing in my native city. I’ll try to learn this part, so I can add War and Peace to my repertoire.”
